Easy Lemon Sorbet Recipe - Only 3 Ingredients! - Ice Cream From Scratch (2024)

FAQs

What is lemon sorbet ice cream made of? ›

INGREDIENTS: Water, Lemon Juice from Concentrate (24%), Sugar, Dextrose, Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar Syrup, Lime Juice from Concentrate (2%), Rice Starch, Maltodextrin, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Citrus Fibre, Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Glucose, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Flavouring.

Without fat from dairy or eggs, it's the suspension of sugar within the fruit purée that allows the sorbet to churn into something with a creamy mouthfeel. You need 20-30% sugar in your sorbet, which will come from your fruit plus some added sugar.

Sorbet in a Nutshell

That's it: You could make a sorbet with nothing but plain water and sugar. "In ice cream, a combination of fat, protein, and sugar all influences ice cream's texture, but in sorbet sugar is the big fish." Sugar doesn't just sweeten sorbet—it's also responsible for sorbet's structure.

Making home-made sorbet is easier than you think. You don't even need an ice cream machine! It's basically just frozen fruit puree sweetened with sugar and water. You can also add herbs, chocolate or wines and liqueurs to flavor the sorbet.

The difference between ice cream and sorbet is also based on whether or not dairy is used. Technically speaking, ice cream always contains cream and/or milk as its main ingredients, while sorbet traditionally never includes dairy or eggs, instead being primarily made from fruit juice or fruit purée.

Too little sugar and the sorbet becomes icy, too much and it can be slushy — hit the sugar level just right and the sorbet will taste creamy and melt evenly across your tongue.

Chunky fruit: Big chunks will be really obvious, but even tiny chunks can help provide little bits that make the result freeze hard. Make sure that you puree well. Too cold a freezer: sorbet is going to be best if it's not frozen extremely cold, but your freezer probably is nice and cold.

Tapioca starch (or corn starch): tapioca starch fis our go-to starch to thicken a sorbet mixture, for the velvety texture it creates. If you do not have tapioca starch, you can use corn starch instead, which is not the same, but it still works.

At its heart, sorbet is simply a frozen fruit syrup, but you can ramp it up a level and include whipped egg white or even mascarpone for a creamier result.

Alcohol doesn't freeze, so it helps prevent sorbet from freezing solid. A little bit goes a long way. 1 to 3 Tablespoons per quart of sorbet is a good rule of thumb. If too much alcohol is added the sorbet will stay mushy.

What are three sorbet flavors? ›

Also, both sugar and alcohol lower the freezing temperature of sorbet, if you had larger-than-usual quantities of either in the recipe, this will slow the freezing.

1 to 2 tablespoons liqueur (this is for flavor, but it also prevents the sorbet from freezing solid. Alcohol won't freeze, so it is great insurance that you will have a soft sorbet. BUT, if you add too much sorbet won't freeze at all and you will basically have a margarita or daiquiri!)

Homemade sorbet generally lasts for about 2 to 3 months when properly stored in the freezer. Ice crystals may develop after 1 month, so don't wait too long to enjoy it.

Adding a bit of hard alcohol like vodka, tequila, or whiskey—all of which run around forty percent alcohol—to a frozen dessert helps prevent big ice crystals from forming in the mixture, resulting in a softer texture. You can freeze the water around it, but you can't freeze vodka.

The nutrition lowdown

Because it contains little other than water, sugar and some form of fruit, sorbet tends to be much lower in calories and fat than ice cream.

Sorbet has less calories than ice cream and other frozen desserts, and no fat. It's fruit content also makes it rich in vitamin C. Any downsides? That fruit content also means it contains a fair bit of sugar, and if we're comparing it with ice cream and gelato, it has less calcium, vitamin A and iron.

Sherbets are often flavored with fruit that has an acidic punch, like lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit, raspberry, or pineapple. The texture is also usually a bit softer than sorbet, which can firm up a bit solidly due to the higher water content.

The major difference between the two is that sherbet is made with dairy and sorbet isn't. Sherbet has more of a creamy texture that you'd expect from ice cream thanks to ingredients like milk, heavy cream, or buttermilk in the mix. Sorbet, on the other hand, is simply sugar and fruit.